Whicker: Kings hoping to prolong this sudden hate affair with Vegas

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The Kings’ Dustin Brown shoves the Golden Knights’ Brayden McNabb down on the ice during Game 2 of their first-round series on Friday in Las Vegas. The Kings don’t lack animosity toward their playoff opponent, but they’re running out of time to make it a series. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

EL SEGUNDO — It would be a shame for the Kings and Golden Knights to split up now. They’re just learning to mistrust each other.

Drew Doughty said Monday that he “doesn’t like a lot of the guys” on the yearling franchise that has a 3-0 first-round series lead.

“Then when it’s over we’ll line up and shake hands,” he said, “and everything’s all good after that.

“And if we play them again in the playoffs we’ll be back to hating each other again. It’s fun building a rivalry with them.”

Except for the moment when Jonathan Marchessault “literally tried to decapitate me with his stick,” according to Doughty.

The team that represents the city of bad decisions made a big one there. It happened with 1.1 seconds left in the second period of Game 3 and gave the Kings a power play to design in the intermission. They already led 1-0 and seemed in charge.

Doughty even pointed at his own head to demonstrate that Marchessault had figuratively lost his.

Then the Knights killed off that penalty and rocked the Kings with three consecutive goals and won 3-2.

It was another validation in a whole season of them. The Knights do not believe in pecking orders or five-year plans. They did not tell their city to trust the process and put up with losing even though Las Vegas probably would have done so. They have played 85 games this season, counting this series, and won 54. A 55th on Tuesday will eliminate the Kings.

The Knights have not lost four consecutive games all season, but that‘s what has to happen for the Kings to keep playing.

“Our hearts and minds were in the right place,” Doughty said.

“We were better last night,” said Jake Muzzin, who joined the series Sunday night after an injury. “But we’re going to need better. They’re a big, fast, heavy team and so are we. We have to do a better job closing the gaps from the D and back pressure from the forwards. We were better last night.”

There was a chasm between James Neal and four-fifths of the Kings when he disposed of Oscar Fantenberg and startled Jonathan Quick with the shot that made it 2-1. The pass came from defenseman Nate Schmidt in the Vegas zone, a quick counterattack that has become the Knights’ ID.

“Three of the goals last night came off the wall,” Kings coach John Stevens said. “It’s about puck recovery It’s an area we have to continue to improve on.”

But the real sore spot is the lonely 4-by-6 net behind Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. In 215 minutes and 23 seconds of play, the Kings have sent three pucks into it. That’s one for Anze Kopitar and one each for rookies Alex Iafallo and Paul LaDue.

That’s none for That 70s Line of Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson, who launched 22 shots overall in Game 3, 12 of which were on net.

“Ty had three great opportunities,” Stevens said. “One of them was against an empty net. I think he scores on that one 99 out of 100 times. So now he owes me 99.”

The 70-somethings have had no assists, and Carter has lost 10 more faceoffs than he’s won, and they were on the ice when the Knights’ Ryan Carpenter fetched a puck and fed Cody Eakin for a tying goal, with little traffic in front of Quick.

“I think there’s more there for that line,” Stevens said. “All of our lines need to build momentum for each other.”

The comparisons between this and 2014, when the Kings watched San Jose build a 3-0 lead and delightedly turned it into historical rubble, are merely cosmetic.

As Muzzin said, it’s only happened four times in NHL history and once in baseball, so it’s not a reliable pattern.

As Stevens said, this is a different Kings team even though the core remains. It lacks that second layer of veteran know-how, epitomized by Justin Williams, Jarret Stoll, Willie Mitchell, Rob Scuderi, Matt Greene, Mike Richards and Robyn Regehr.

But it’s not the kids who are stranding chances.

The Kings felt their tooth-loosening approach in the first period had an effect on Vegas. They didn’t agree with the NHL’s lack of concern over Eric Haula’s butt-ending of Kopitar’s jaw, which didn’t draw a whistle.

“Everybody in the room is talking about that,” Doughty said. “But we all got to the NHL because we’re competitive, we love the game, we’ll do anything we can to win.

“There are certain plays you don’t like. But that’s part of the game of hockey. It’s part of the game I love.”